The Brewsletter

October 2009

 

hrbtscrab[

 

The Official Newsletter of the Hampton Roads Brewing & Tasting Society (HRB&TS)

www.hrbts.org

 

President’s Podium – Jonna Walker

 

PROST!

 

That is the toast in Munich at Oktoberfest.  Will and I just returned from the festivities there.  I am still recovering!  This is our third visit to the Munich Oktoberfest and each time we were there for the opening of the taps at noon.  You had to be there by 9 AM to get a table and you have to be at a table to be served beer.  The festival is so huge; there are 14 tents and each hold thousands of people from all over the world. Total seating capacity is 100,000.  We met people from Brazil, Australia, Italy, Spain, England, Holland and Deutschland.  Outside they had Ferris wheels, other carnival rides and hundreds of various food vendors throughout the fair grounds.  For the occasion, locals dress in traditional costumes, the men wear leather pants or shorts called lederhosen and the women wear dirndls.  Pictures included!

 

This Wed at our Oktoberfest, you will not have to be sitting at a table to drink beer, but then your beer glass will not be quite as large.  We have ordered some food from the Bier Garden in Portsmouth and I plan to make my German Chocolate cake.  I will not be wearing a dirndl.   Wonder if Will will be wearing a lederhosen?? 

  

Also, we will be having our "Silent Auction" again this year.  This is a big fund raiser for the club so your participation is very important.  Please try to drop off any contributions you want to donate before Wednesday so we can make up bid sheets.   Looking forward to seeing everyone in our club and some new faces too.

 

Prost! Prost!

Jonna-Dawn Walker

President HRB&TS

 

MunichOktoberfest

 

 

 

 

Meeting Location – Diane Catanzaro

HRB&TS 2008 Oktoberfest Party!   October 7 at 6:30 pm

 

The HRB&TS celebration of the Party Formerly Known as the Wedding Reception of Konig Ludwig and his Bride Theresa will be at the home of Will and Jonna Walker this Wednesday! Will and Jonna have recently returned from a similar celebration they have in Munich every year, perhaps you’ve heard of it?

 

Our Oktoberfest will be a bit smaller BUT we’ll have a greater variety of beer than the folks at the real Oktoberfest, so what we lack in size we hope to make up for in variety!

 

So, don’t let your Wiener schnitzel….Will and Jonna’s spacious kitchen/living room/porch/yard will be transformed miraculously into the Hofbrau Haus (provided you taste enough reinheitsgebot-inspired malt beverage) and before you can say “leider-hosen” you’ll be Schuhplattling (shoe-slapping) to the volksmusik.

 

The club will supply brats, potato salad, sauerkraut, spaetzel, and such, and Jonna is making her homemade German Chocolate cake! Side dishes are welcome if you are so inspired. Non-alcoholic beverages will be provided.

 

Bring some German beer, non-German beer, homebrew or commercial brew. Looking for some German beer to share? Of course Oktoberfests are abundant and (dare-I-say?) a tad cliché….great if you are swilling all day in true session-style. However, a rauschbier to sip with the sausage is a great combination. A dopplebock would be tasty with the German Chocolate cake (so would an imperial stout, for that matter). Hefeweizen, dunkel, schwarzbier, Berliner Weisse…all nice choices. Aventinus, or Aventinus Eisbock….the latter being perhaps the most flavor-icious German beer on the planet. And, if you’ve not had Williamsburg Brewing’s Pumpkin Ale….let’s just say it is pump-tastic, made with real pumpkin, and swimming in spices. Cottonwood’s is also very, very good, but we had the two pumpkin beers side-by-side at Town Point Park’s TGIF Beer-and-Music thang last Friday, and Williamsburg’s simply blew me away. Seriously, I almost floated across the water to the Portsmouth Naval Hospital, where I could perhaps have had my fluttering heart checked to see if I was dreaming….

 

The festivities begin at 6:30, so there is extra time to peruse and bid on the groovy items available in the club’s silent auction. The party often spills out of the house into the lake-lined backyard, so you may wish to bring a sweater or light jacket in case we get some festive autumnal nip in the air.

 

 

Competition Corner – Tom Byrnes

 

Our Saison contest treated a small number of members to some really good examples of the style.  Our three judges: Tom, Diane and Doug, eagerly accepted the challenge of evaluating our entries.  The scores ranged from 29 to 34.  JP continued his quest for a 3-peat by taking first place (34.6).  Tom returned to the points Race and took second place (31.5) and CJ took third (29).

 

Brewing points are listed below:

2009 HRBTS CUP STANDINGS

Name of Brewer

Points Accumulated

JP Messier

24

Tom  Byrnes

19

Chris Jones

  9

Doug Boyd

  8

Jason Kuller

  5

Gus Gustafson

  4

You could be here ….

??

 

While JP now has some breathing room, this contest remains close with two months remaining.   All members are encouraged to brew and enter this contest.  The more beers we have the better our competition becomes and the more homebrew we have at the meetings.  The next competition, Belgian Strong, is scheduled for October 22nd at 7:30 pm; however, the date may change due my attending the Virginia Psychological Association Fall Conference during that time.  The location will be determined later.  Please watch your emails for further details.

 

2009 HRB&TS CUP BREWING SCHEDULE

Month

Style

Category/Sub

AHA Event - Deadline

November

(Oct 22)

 

Belgian Strong

 

18 A-E

 

Nov/Dec 09

December

(Nov 19)

 

Smoked Porter

22B with base style in 12

 

January 2010

(December 17)

 

English Brown Ale

 

11 A,B,C

 

February 16,  2010

February 2010

(Jan 21)

 

American Ales

 

10 A,B

 

March/April 2010

March 2010

(Feb 18)

 

Braggot

 

26B

 

If you are willing to host future events please email me at tombyrnes@verizon.net to reserve your month.

October Winners:

1st Place – HRBTS Cup October 2009, Brewer: JP Messier

 

2nd Place – HRBTS Cup October 2009, Brewer: Tom Byrnes

3rd Place – HRBTS Cup October 2009, Brewer: Chris Jones

Dogfish Head

 

Great story about the owner of Dogfish Head.

 

http://www.realamericanstories.com/dogfishheadbrewery/

 

Rob Camlin

 

Celebrate Oktoberfest with the Bier Garden!

 

This coming Saturday, October 10, the Bier Garden is holding their Oktoberfest, at the north ferry landing on High Street, Portsmouth.  There will be a traditional German band, games, prizes for best German costume, sausages and, oh yeah, beer.  They will be tapping a ceremonial hochzeit keg, brewed to the recipe of the actual beer served at the wedding of King Ludwig and his bride….  the original Oktoberfest!  The event runs from noon til 9 pm, with the keg tapping at 1 pm.  Tickets are $5.00 and benefit Rainbow Rescue.

 

Virginia Beach Craft Beer Festival

 

Festival is Saturday and Sunday, October 17th and 18th at BeachStreet Seaside Palladium, 24th Street.  Featuring 50 craft beers from over 25 different breweries.  Event runs from 1 pm to 6 pm.  Enjoy live music and taste fine beers.  Tickets are $20.00 and includes unlimited sampling and a commemorative tasting glass.  Tickets available for purchase through Ticketmaster beginning October 1.  Live concerts by:  Virginia Coalition, Sons of Bill, Pawn Shop Lifters and Rylo.

 

2nd Final Gravity Strong Beer Competition

 

This is a notice for the 2nd Final Gravity Strong Beer Competition (SBC) to be held on Saturday, October 24th, 2009 in Atlanta GA.  Please share with your club members.  The SBC is an AHA / BJCP sanctioned competition in which all entries must be in one of 23 BJCP categories that cross the line of 8% ABV (sorry, no Meads this year).  Thus, the name Strong Beer Competition!  See the website below for specific styles.

 

Awards will be given to the top three beers for each flight and Best of Show, and prizes will be given to the top entry in each.  BOS WINNER TO WIN SKYMILES AND TICKETS TO PIZZA PORT STRONG ALE FEST IN CARLSBAD CA ON DEC 4TH and 5TH, 2009!!  Entries will be accepted between October 1st and October 17th, and are limited to 100 entries.  You MUST receive database confirmation and label print instructions from the Final Gravity website to enter your beers.

 

Please go to www.FinalGravityBrewing.com/strong for more details and to complete the entry forms, or email admin@finalgravitybrewing.com with questions.  Note that the submission link will be active within 24 hrs.  Also, when submitting entries you will be taken off of our domain - this is okay.  It is due to an issue with our domain's database server.  We look forward to receiving your strong beer entries!

Cheers!
David Hatker
SBC  Registrar
david.hatker@gmail.com

 

 

About the HRB&TS

The Hampton Roads Brewing and Tasting Society is dedicated to promoting the enjoyment of home brewing.  The annual dues are $20 per individual and $25 per family.  Members are encouraged to support the reasonable enjoyment of beer and observe the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Federal government, and the Golden Rule.  Persons attending HRB&TS meetings and events are solely liable for actions attendant to their participation.   HRB&TS maintains a NO SMOKING policy during all meetings so that members may better enjoy fine beers.  Visit the HRB&TS online at www.hrbts.org.